That's silly; the US government does not have the power to write regulations.
Posts by ratfox
3721 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Sep 2007
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Google scolded for depriving the poor of privacy as Chinese malware bundled on phones for hard-up Americans
Yeah, says Google Project Zero, when you think about it, going public with exploit deets immediately after a patch is emitted isn't such a great idea
From Soviet to science fiction icon, the weird life of Isaac Asimov 100 years on
Re: frustrating genius
When I was young, I used to prefer his later work; it's the opposite now. The difference between the initial Foundation trilogy and the later additions is quite obvious.
I would snarkily say that his way of writing character relationships probably mirrored his own interpersonal skills: He was a brilliant conversationist and speech maker, but probably not a very empathetic person.
EA boots Linux gamers out of multiplayer Battlefield V, Penguinistas respond by demanding crippling boycott
Fuming French monopoly watchdog is so incensed by Google's 'random' web ad rules, it's fining the US giant, er, <1% annual profit
Alphabet, Apple, Dell, Tesla, Microsoft exploit child labor to mine cobalt for batteries, human-rights warriors claim
GlaxoSmithKline ditches IR35 contractors: Go PAYE or go home
You had one job, Cupertino: Apple's Intelligent Tracking Protection actually gets tracking protection
How many steps was that, then? Uncle Sam's lawyers, watchdog race to probe Google's Fitbit gobble
Silicon Valley Scrooges sidestep debt to society through tax avoidance to the tune of $100bn
That's less than a tenth of what Microsoft paid in income tax during the same period, $46.9bn, even through Amazon's revenue during the decade exceeded Microsoft's by about $80bn.
Woah, stop. Just stop. Their argument here is wrong on various levels. First, income is not the same as revenue, and Amazon is in a low-margin business; it makes sense for them to have a much lower income than Microsoft, and pay less income tax. Second, they say Amazon's revenue exceeded Microsoft's by $80bn, as if this was a huge difference; but that actually means Amazon's revenue was around 10% higher than Microsoft's, since they both had revenues of about $1tn these past 10 years.
Large corp are not paying enough taxes, I can believe that. But people shouldn't randomly compare large numbers and claim it means something.
Vote rigging, election fixing, ballot stuffing: Just another day in the life of a Register reader
Googlers fired after tracking colleagues working on US border cop projects. Now, if they had monetized that stalking...
Would be nice if the world was that simple, however...
Legal proceedings should be governed by demonstrable facts not the "opinion" of the plaintiff.
The difference between romance and harassment is pretty much only in the feelings of the persons involved.
Otherwise, a defendant might only know if they were guilty of a crime retrospectively.
Legally, you pretty much only know if you were guilty of a crime when the jury returns the verdict, and that always happens long after the fact.
Anthos: Google's bid for Kubernetes differentiation ... and market share
White Screen of Death: Admins up in arms after experimental Google emission borks Chrome
High Court dismisses nameless Google Right To Be Forgotten sueball man... yes, again
Re: It seems that ABC is well aware of the Streisand effect
Note that there are at least two people who have sued Google in UK under the Right to be forgotten, one has won, the other has lost, and as far as I know their name has been kept out of the media. This was extensively reported on this excellent website:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/13/google_right_be_forgotten_trial_nt2_victory_nt1_loss/
I remember that at the time I did not manage to figure out from tantalising clues the identity of these people, despite spending a couple of hours on the internet. I believe the gag order on their name is still in effect, so even if you know who they are, you are forbidden to reveal it.
Thanks, Brexit. Tesla boss Elon Musk reveals Berlin as location for Euro Gigafactory
Huawei. It's the patriotic choice: Mobe behemoth predicts 20% sales spike despite US sanctions
Satya 'Karma' Nadella ignored our complaints over pay gap, thousands of Microsoft women say
all the evaluations were done through the Calibration system which everyone agrees provides so much discretion to individual managers that the Dukes precedent applies
If the result of the policy of leaving everything to the discretion of individual managers is that there is a large pay gap across the company, I would say that there is a strong argument that the company should not have that policy, and that it is responsible for the result.
That said, is this 6% pay gap a job-for-job comparison, or the gap between the average pay of men and women at Microsoft no matter what their job is? If it's the first, it's way too much; if it's the second, it's surprisingly low for the industry...
DoHn't believe the hype! You are being lied to by data-hungry ISPs, Mozilla warns lawmakers
Re: Google complains about data hungry ISP's??? Those are some swinging balls
I guess just the traffic data of websites would be invaluable by itself. They probably can also get traffic data because so many people use Chrome. And again because so many people use Google search.
But yeah, the fact that ISPs would not be able to get that data is certainly not going to make Google sad. Or anybody else.
Re: Google complains about data hungry ISP's??? Those are some swinging balls
Astonishingly, Google claims they don't track users with the data from their DNS service
I know, I know, I didn't believe it either...
Bad news, developers: Apple Mac App Store tells cross-platform Electron apps to get lost
A stranger's TV went on spending spree with my Amazon account – and web giant did nothing about it for months
Dark pattern + invisible subscription = profit
So we did have weird AMZN... charges on our credit card, which didn't show up in the account on the Amazon website.
I called them just to check if it was really them, and the the guy immediately says yeah, I see those charges, they're for your Kindle subscription. What Kindle subscription?
1) Turns out that when you install the Kindle app on your phone, you get one of those magical dark patterns, which looks like this: screenshot
If you hit the big yellow button in the middle, you need to remember to cancel within the week, otherwise the free pass is renewed into a paying monthly subscription. I guess the back button is the only way to refuse the offer.
2) Their customer support could see our Kindle subscription, and the charges. However, we could not. Neither were showing in our account. Seeing the charges on the credit card was literally the only way we could notice anything was wrong...
Remember when Bezos whined about having too much money? Amazon's Q3 will help out with that
Yay! The ozone layer hole the smallest it's ever been seen. That's not necessarily good...
Google lashes out at DoJ, Oracle as it asks US Supremes to sniff Java suit one last time
8 billion - that's what, 10 minutes ad revenue?
For Google, that's about three weeks of revenue, three months of profits or 1% of the market cap.
For Oracle, that's about three months of revenue, ten months of profits and 5% of the market cap.
For Somalia, that's one year of GDP.
For The Register, that's 6.8 DUP or 76 Pogbas.
YouTube thinkfluencer Siraj Raval admits he plagiarized boffins' neural qubit papers – as ESA axes his workshop
700,000 YouTube subscribers and 70,000 Twitter followers — Is that a lot?
The sad thing is that we absolutely need educators who are able to present advanced research to the masses in an intelligible way. It's completely fine repeating the work of others as long as you don't claim you did the work yourself. You can even become famous in your own right by doing science vulgarization (Isaac Asimov comes to mind). Just pay respect when it's due, and give proper attribution.
Google Maps gets Incognito fig leaf: We'll give you vague peace of mind if you hold off those privacy laws
They'll offer anything you want as long as the default is that the data is stored. The vast majority of people will never change the settings.
That said, it is definitely useful to me that my YouTube history is stored. That means that I will get suggestions for new videos in the channels I follow, and only new videos, not those I have seen already.
Google will not donate Knative framework 'to any foundation for the foreseeable future'
Re: Corporate Behemoth Eyes Pie, Takes It
To be fair, Google actually cooked this pie, so they are not taking it but rather keeping> it. The question is why wouldn't anybody just fork the project and do whatever they want? I'm assuming this Knative is a very niche thing, and few people outside of Google have any interest in developing it, unlike Kubernetes which has many people interested and that Google does not control anymore.
The mod firing squad: Stack Exchange embroiled in 'he said, she said, they said' row
Brighton perv cops community service for 'hacking' women's Facebook accounts
600 armed German cops storm Cyberbunker hosting biz on illegal darknet market claims
How to lose a UK contractor in 10 days: Make them commit after upcoming IR35 tax upheaval, apparently
Over one half of those questioned also believe the changes will discourage people from starting as contractors in the future
Well that's the point, innit? The goal of the change is to discourage the status of contractor, because having too many contractors is deemed either a huge loophole by the taxman, or a protection of workers who are forced by companies to work as contractors so as to avoid costly protections and holidays... Depending on who you ask.
US senators green-light recruitment of crack infosec teams, both public and private
Are they going to call it Trendy Bear or USA Unit 61398?
macOS? More like mac-woe-ess: Google Chrome slip-up trips up SIP-less Apple Macs
Google spaffs €3bn on power-grubbin' Euro bit barns while boasting of its 'biggest renewable energy purchase ever'
Re: Ha ha ha ha
We all know the real reason Google is investing in renewable energy and it isn't because it cares one iota about the environment. It's just cheaper for them in the long run.
I didn't know that renewable was cheaper than nuclear energy these days; but if it is, well then that's good news!
'Ridiculous, rubbish, outrageous, complete bollocks': Just some reviews for Amazon's corporate contribution to Blighty's coffers
Re: Not really Amazon's fault
This. It's a bit weird to set the rules, then complain when people obey them too efficiently. Especially when many of these rules were specifically created to attract businesses in the first place.
The way I see it, a lot of rules in EU were pushed by the UK because they hoped they'd become the low-tax fiscal paradise for global companies operating in EU. They just never saw Ireland coming. And that may well explain the current clusterfuck^W political events.
Google engineering boss sues web giant over sex discrim: I was paid less than men, snubbed for promotion
Hold up, ace. Before you strap into Firefox's latest Test Pilot, ask yourself...
Facebook: Remember how we promised we weren’t tracking your location? Psych! Can't believe you fell for that
Apple will wring out $18bn by upselling NAND to fanbois – analyst
Look, we know it feels like everything's going off the rails right now, but think positive: The proton has a new radius
Yahoo! customers! wake! up! to! borked! email! (Yes! people! still! actually! use! it!)
Re: Guilty Secret
I think the real problem is that Yahoo might well stop working at all soon.
It's fine to have an account you use for all your crap, but it should at least be something that is going to survive for a while. For instance, the email I give to The Register is a hotmail account, and I'm reasonably certain that Microsoft is not going to die anytime soon...
Maltese browser game biz flings €1m sueball at Google over Adsense kerfuffle
We're great, boasts Huawei in founder's Little Red Book – but isn't that a video game screenshot?
Compare the Huawei screenshot with this Russian-language history of the Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik aircraft, which includes plenty of photos of real Il-2s, including some with actual battle damage.
Interesting: I don't know if it was edited afterwards, but that website also displays the very same image from the game. It's the 7th image in the article.
European Commission inserts yet another probe into Google. This time it's the job ads service
There's no end to this
Technically, anything that Google tries to answer immediately may be seen as unfair competition. They do unit conversion? That's unfair to unit conversion sites. They give dictionary definitions? Unfair to dictionary sites. Lyrics? Same. And so on...
The fact there are so many examples only illustrates how powerful Google is, just by being the first entity people will query about anything.
Female-free speaker list causes PHP show to collapse when diversity-oriented devs jump ship
Audible hasn't even launched its AI-powered book subtitles and publishers have already fired off a sueball
I'm with audible on this. I find supremely annoying the copyright owners who insist that any new use of their IP should be a brand new source of revenue.
And if users were to play an audiobook in front of a speech-to-text machine, they'd probably sue the users, claiming they only bought the license to listen, and not to read. And not in that country. And not on a balcony where passersby could catch a glimpse. Etc. Etc.